Invests in
Sectors:
Locations:
Min Investment:
$5,000.00Max Investment:
$50,000.00Target Investment:
$25,000.00
Skills
Education
- Uo
- Uo
- Uo
- BS
- JB
Lists including John
Investments
Skycart
Total Funding:
Reyets: Social Justice Network
Total Funding: $210K
Field Complete
Total Funding: $4M
VEDA Data Solutions
Total Funding: $46M
Athletes of Valor
Total Funding:
GymDandy
Total Funding: $200K
BODITRAK SPORTS
Total Funding: $300K
Fishidy
Total Funding: $2.1M
Clique API
Total Funding: $5M
Work Experience
1998
Senior Financial Managemnet Officer
2024
Directing the full range of financial management services for the Mission comprised of 250 USDH and 850 Local staff in Embassy Abuja and Consulate Lagos. Additional support of Embassy Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.
Diplomat
1998
Various positions in US Embassies and Consulates. FMA from 1998-2009. Financial and Management Officer from 2010.
Financial Management Officer, Diplomat
2021 - 2024
Deputy CFO for US Mission India (New Delhi + Consulates General Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai) one of the largest U.S. Missions in the world. Responsible for oversight of expenditure of over $100 Million per year by over 40 USG entities across the country and region.
Management Officer, Diplomat
2014 - 2015
July 2014-July 2015 I provided effective management of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement section of the U.S. Embassy. I ensured effective control of contracts related to counter-narcotics police, courts, prisons, and training programmes. I methodically oversaw all aspects of government oversight with US Government Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Specifically during my tour I: ✪ Managed improvements and communications with 1000-man Camp Gibson and DEA contingent to prepare it for handover to the Afghan Government. ✪ Headed all aspects of budgeting and reporting for more than $500M in annual appropriations and more than $1.2B in prior year funds
Chief Financial Officer, Diplomat
2010 - 2014
I headed teams of local and American Staff members and led all accounting, budgeting, and auditing operations, while acting as backup Management Officer responsible for all General Services, Facilities Maintenance, Human Resources, and Medical Services. I maintained and documented accounting policies and procedures as well as supervised the production of annual budget and forecasts while ~ Enforcing control over $9M in State Department funds and $40M in other government Agency funding. ~ Acting as sole disbursing officer in country.
Deputy Financial Management Officer | Chairman of American Comm Association
2003 - 2004
I was the deputy FMO in Hanoi responsible for budgets, payments, and funds control for all US Agencies in US Embassy Hanoi and Consulate General Ho Chi Minh. I was also the Chairman of the American Community Association in Hanoi which included the American Club on Hai Ba Trung.
2008
Angel Investor and Startup Board Member
2008
2024 UPDATE: Any startups that message me without the word RUTABEGA in the message will be ignored- if you can't take the time to read my profile before pitching me, why should I spend the time looking at your pitch? I have been evaluating startups since my first startup investment in 2008. I spent a great portion of my time from 2015 to 2018 attending startup conferences, judging pitch competitions, evaluating startups for investment (both personally and as an advisor to two different investment funds), and advising startups- especially in the building of complex business plans and pitching to investors, including coaching on exit potentials and investor-centered messaging. I still invest (last investment July 2021), though less frequently.
2018 - 2021
Finance Transformation Consulting
2019 - 2021
Senior Manager leading large multi-functional teams in complex environments for Deloitte's consulting business in the UK and North/South Europe. Concentrating on the Public Sector. Corporate Council Member of CIPFA NW (2021). ✪ July 2021 - October 2021: Led a team transforming government IT procurement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (https://www.linkedin.com/company/dgasaudi/). ✪ March 2020 - June 2021: I led teams across North West England to set up, monitor, and continually improve the 100+ UK DHSC COVID-19 Testing Sites from Crewe to Carlisle, the Penines to the Coast. ✪ Sept 2019-Feb 2020 I supported a £12M engagement by effectively managing £1M workstream delivering a complex reporting solution based on SAP BW/4HANA with a Tableau front-end for a Fortune 400 client. In addition to these leadership roles I lead the operational and data team to grow the Deloitte Consulting business through recruiting, market engagement, and thought leadership throughout the North of England.
Financial Advisory
2018 - 2019
While with Deloitte Government and Public Sector Advisory I provided business and industry thought leadership, managed engagement, and supported clients from government to private companies and provided robust financial advice. Some of my contributions are listed below: ✪ U.S. Dept. of the Navy: Headed $1.3M engagement and seven-member team focused on SAP requirements gathering and documentation for a complete overhaul of the Navy’s financial systems. ✪ U.S. DoD Entity: Administered $500K project and six-member team to finalise, document, and deliver financial data visualization for $8B in annual appropriations and $12B in prior obligated funds. ✪ U.S. Dept. of State: Managed $1M one-year engagement and eight-member team to deliver process change streamline worldwide communication to improve planning and delivery of $40B in annual U.S. Foreign Assistance. During this period I also: ~ Represented Deloitte at conferences for the AGA and for the ASMC to demonstrate how budget and expenditure data visualization can allow government leaders to drive efficiencies and effect change. ~ Led recruitment, training, and development of junior staff.
2015 - 2018
Executive Vice President, Founder Labs Group
2017 - 2018
As an EVP, I founded the Labs group within a private CPaaS (Communications Platform as Service) company. I strategised operations and budgets, as well as aligned all resources to achieve goals for the group. I tactfully negotiated all partnerships, securing non-traditional contracts while expanding the reach of products. I led our efforts to apply cutting edge cloud technologies (CPaaS, PaaS, AWS, WebRTC, Node.js, and others) to deliver results and demonstrate potential product offerings in text to speech, speech to text, multiparty transcription, and dynamic browser-based transcription (including mobile browser). I was responsible for all operations, budgets, managed local and remote Agile development teams (primarily SCRUM supported through Jira), staffing, and management of our Labs group. Our team of 10 on shore and more than 20 offshore resources delivered software for online communications integrated with games, Slack, and websites.
Executive Vice President
2015 - 2017
Recruited as an executive non-director with an Internet Conferencing Startup. Primarily charged with operations management, recruitment, and Agile new product development including a digital-first CPaaS conferencing platform hosted on AWS with HD WebRTC voice, web, iOS and Android apps. I was drove user engagement, marketing, and feature development with a global team of engineers.
2017 - 2018
Startup Evaluator
2017 - 2018
As an Advisor, I assessed businesses and provided due diligence and advice for fund investments. I conducted in-depth research and cross-referenced industry best practices. I sourced, assessed, and tracked new investment opportunities and coordinated with technology start-ups across all sectors, sponsoring several companies for investments. Specifically I: ~ Analysed over 30 companies and advised on more than $2M in executed investments.
2007 - 2009
Senior Auditor- CPA
2007 - 2009
I performed audits in the US Federal Government (US Dept of Veterans Affairs, Federal Reserve), quasi-governmental organizations (FarmerMac), and pre-IPO software companies (including on the emerging issue of revenue recognition). I also was a team leader on a consulting project to prepare a US Department of Defense Agency to be audited for the first time.
2005 - 2007
MBA Student | Stay-at-home Dad
2005 - 2007
MBA Student and stay-at-home dad to two while living in Toulouse, France.
2002 - 2003
Management Consultant
2002 - 2003
Management consultant to the first internet company in Vietnam- specifically in the realm of price discovery and operations improvement.
1998 - 2001
Product Manager and Marketing Manager
1998 - 2001
10th employee of a VC-backed Internet telephony company. Our team grew to over 150 employees in three years, landing a $30M contract with Worldcom (now Verizon), and built relationships with all the carriers in the US. We helped introduce Unified Communications to the US telecommunications industry, utilizing both the web and speech recognition before anyone had put the two together. I led the effort to develop the first local-number (with portability) unified communication product in 2000, alongside many other feature improvements over my three years with the company.